Monday, May 09, 2011

Little Iodine and The Cartoon Rule Of Starched Skirts

aI like this style. It's sort of a cross between Jimmy Hatlo and Chic Young.Compared to animation of the same time period it's a bit stiff, but it has other attributes:Great linework, interesting detail and a gritty man-on-the-street sort of outlook.I like the perception of the world that many strip cartoonists had ( as opposed to Disney-influenced animation designers). They pictured everyone and everything as sort of ugly-funny, -even kids. Contemporary animation tended to have a very small handful of stock designs and kids were usually drawn in a Freddy Moore generic-cute style (like Harvey comics, who also published these Little Iodine comics). Animation had some notable exceptions to the cute kids rule, like the Hansel and Gretel characters in the Chuck Jones cartoon.http://comicrazys.com/2011/05/02/little-iodine-mystery-of-the-crooked-stick-jimmy-hatlo/

Hi John, sorry to reply largely off-tpic, but have you ever seen Wally Fawkes work on the UK newspaper strip "Flook": thought it might be your kind of thing, or of interest anyway. I think it's one of the most stylish fluidly constructed comics of all time. Here's a sample:<img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v642/ajsmith/Flook7.jpg>

Jimmy Hatlo was a weekly visitor in my life back when the comic strips were large enough to read and you could spread the Sunday Funnies out on the floor. A simpler bygone era; thanks for the focus on Iodine. She changed a bit over the years, but there was always a life in her.

I think Jimmy Hatlo shared at least one assistant (Bob Dunn) with Milt Gross. At least Hatlo's spot newspaper comic "THEY'LL DO IT EVERY TIME!" was being done by Dunn and the faithfully Hatlo-esque Al Scaduto as late as the 1970's. Hatlo was dead by then but his name was still featured on the masthead of the strip, with they other artists names drawn into the panel.

Hey, John. I used to read your blog everyday but have lost touch what with all the distractions. I'd like it if you joined twitter that way I can see when you post. Your preconceived notions of twitter notwithstanding, it's a great resource. I can't see you not having a large number followers. I'm a big fan of yours. Keep up the good work. Your blog is informative and inspiring.